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Thursday, February 7, 2013

VALENTINE'S CHOCOLATE RECIPES

Here is this year's list of favorite chocolate recipes for Valentine's Day, aka National Chocolate Day.

Frosted Cream Cheese or Goat Cheese Brownies are easier to make than you think. You don't need a mixer, just a bowl and spoon. If you don't want to make your own frosting, just spread the top with Nutella or canned frosting or leave these delicious brownies plain.

Old-Fashioned Cocoa Devil's Food Cake, made with a mixture of unbleached all-purpose flour and white whole wheat flour, is a denser but very enjoyable creation, especially when it’s covered with chocolate ganache, then trimmed with coconut swiss buttercream frosting and toasted unsweetened coconut chips. You can make it with just unbleached all-purpose flour for a lighter version.

Almost-Old-Fashioned Whoopie Pies never fail to please. These are made with butter, not shortening, and nonfat Greek yogurt. Light, moist and chocolatey, these will get you raves.

Chocolate-Almond Cream Pie is a dessert made in heaven. A tender and flavorful almond graham cracker crust holds a rich and chocolatey filling with a mild almond undertone. The whipped-cream topping is spiked with almond liqueur and sprinkled with chocolate shavings. It has my highest rating and will make any celebration memorable.

Banana Chocolate Cupcakes: Full of flavor, very light and moist, this one is a definite winner! The banana flavor comes through, but in a background sort of way.

Chocolate Guinness Cakeis everything you ever wanted in a chocolate cake. The ale bumps up the chocolate flavor and delivers moistness as well. This is one cake you’ll remember for a long time.

Chocolate Zucchini Muffinsare moist, chocolatey, flavorful and even have fiber and some food value. One muffin will definitely fix your chocolate craving, and you won't blow all your calories. They have my highest rating and they don’t taste healthy!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icingare sure to please almost everyone. Moist, tender, velvety and not-too-sweet chocolate cupcakes are topped with fluffy peanut butter frosting. Buttermilk and sour cream make the cupcakes tender and moist; coffee and brown sugar enhance the chocolate flavor; and the peanut butter icing is creamy, sweet and delicious.

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip-Heath Bits Cookies are delicious cookies with a nice peanut-butter flavor. The pecans and semisweet chocolate chips tone down the almost cloying sweetness of the Heath bits. Just enough crunch, just enough sweetness. With crispy edges and insides that are soft and almost chewy, these are sure to become a favorite.

Nutella Mascarpone Cheesecake with Chocolate Graham Cracker Crustis a rich, creamy, firm, New York-style cheesecake that delivers a subtle Nutella flavor from Nutella that is spread over the cooled crust before adding the cheesecake filling. The filling, itself, has hazelnut liqueur added, and the cheesecake can be topped with shaved chocolate or more Nutella. Either way, it’s absolutely delicious.